


don't got much but i got heart and soul

by thewestwinged



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lusamine Being A Terrible Person, M/M, aged up characters? cause they gotta drive, i mean like im trying. so theres that, idk man we are just gonna have a solid good time here, professor kukui adopts ALL the kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-17 22:54:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14840750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewestwinged/pseuds/thewestwinged
Summary: 3,000 miles between new jersey and california, a team of semi-competent thieves on the hunt for their sort-of-stolen ultra-powerful pokemon baby, and moon’s biggest worry is keeping hau away from the aux cord. because really, if she has to listen to edge of glory one more time, she won’t be responsible for her actions.(a pokemon sumo modern roadtrip au)





	1. if you don't know where you're going

**Author's Note:**

> hi welcome, welcome

**Marvel’s The Runaways**

**moon:** hurry up fuckers

**moon:** we r burning daylight

 

**Hau!:** it’s 10PM

 

**moon:** blocked!

 

**emo edgelord:** Calm down

**emo edgelord:** We’re coming

 

**moon:** phrasing :^)

 

**emo edgelord:** Shut the hell up and also go fuck yourself

* * *

 

Moon rests her arms on the passenger seat window of Hau’s Subaru, squinting at the enormous mansion across the street. The Aether house is white-walled, four stories tall, with a lawn bigger than the entire state of New Jersey, probably. Moonlight glistens off the water from the inground pool and its center fountain, surrounding the house like a moat. Smoke and stilted laughter drift out from the backyard. Moon doesn’t realize her fists are clenched until she looks down at her hands, the small crescent moons that line her palms.

A light flickers on in the foyer. Only for a second, before it disappears - but it’s enough to catch Moon’s attention. “Start the car,” she says, shuffling back into her seat.

“Aye aye, captain,” Hau says. His Pichu, perched on his left shoulder, chirps a similar affirmation. The car shifts into drive, humming softly.

Moon shifts her gaze back to the mansion. The door to the Aether house swings open, revealing two human silhouettes and something that appears to be a dog, but with an axe on its head. As they get closer, the features of her two closest friends and partners in excellent crime become clearer, along with those of their creepy, creepy dog. 

Gladion’s stare is intense as always, half hidden by the blonde fringe that hangs over his face. He’s bundled in some kind of white parka with a fluffy trim, still shivering slightly in the February cold. Lillie follows behind him, clutching a bag with a pokeball insignia to her chest. If Moon didn’t know better, they would look sort of like two very miserable angels in desperate need of better clothes. As it is, Lillie looks like a very miserable angel in desperate need of better clothes and Gladion looks mostly like a bitch. 

“Hey, guys,” Hau says, peering through Moon’s window, a cheerful grin blooming on his face. “Howzit?”

Lillie lets out a world-weary sigh. “About as well as you would expect,” she says, readjusting the bag in her arms. 

Null bounds into the back the second the car door is opened, nuzzling against Hau’s shoulder with the flat side of its axe. Moon’s always found that kind of disturbing, but Hau thinks it’s cute, so more power to him, or whatever.

Gladion and Lillie climb into the car, shutting the door behind them, and Hau turns back to the front, absentmindedly adjusting his mirrors. “Buckle up,” he says. “Tutu is pretty great, but if I get in an accident and one of you dies, I don’t think he’ll let me drive the car again.”

“Your concern is  _ really  _ touching,” Gladion mumbles. But he clicks his seatbelt.

Hau grins, the softer, blushy kind, and presses down on the gas. Pichu provides accompanying sound effects.

They rumble down the newly-paved street. Moon watches as the Aether house disappears into the murky darkness of night, hand scrunched up against her chest, like something's going to fall out. She doesn't know what. There's a whole world stretched out in front of them, or at least a whole country, and the finality she feels is both exciting and absolutely terrifying. 

Not the best idea, to slip into existential thinking already. Moon shakes herself out of it,  wriggles around to face Lillie, sitting behind her. “How’s the little guy holding up?” She asks, resting her chin on the leather of her seat.

Lillie smiles, shy. “Why don’t you see for yourself?” She unzips the bag with careful hands.

A trill rings through the car. Moon watches in awe as a tiny pokemon emerges from the bag, waving its cloud-like appendages in apparent excitement. She grins. “Oh, Lil! It’s so cute!”

“Oh, yeah!” Hau adds. “That’s downright  _ adorable _ .”

Moon turns, flicks the side of his head. “Focus on the road, bucket brain.”

Hau mimes wiping a tear from his eye. “So cruel,” he says. “I give you all of my love, Moonlet, and this is how I am repaid…”

Gladion snorts, and then tries to pretend he hadn’t. 

“So,” Moon says, looking back at Lillie. “What are you gonna name it?”

Lillie’s gaze locks onto the tiny cloud pokemon, darting around the car, avoiding Null’s head axe as he attempts to sniff it. And - the big thing, at least for Moon, is the way her mouth twitches up at the corners, curving into an easy smile. She doesn’t look afraid.

“Nebby,” Lillie says, with the little nod she always does when making non-math-related decisions. “I’ll call it Nebby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is short because it is a prologue of sorts..... a hook..... an introduction TM  
> also the next chapter is gonna be a little bit of background so if you are confused Fear Not  
> also also! if anyone has any opinions! on what moon's starter / The Pokemon She Has That She's Bringing should be just lemme kno!
> 
> follow me on tumblr! www.cassiecillian.tumblr.com :^)


	2. (back to the start)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> let's go back a couple days.

The whole thing starts on the thirteenth of February.

Well, you might argue that the whole thing starts three and a half years prior, in the midst of a  _ very _ heated review game of history-themed Kahoot, in which Gladion had gotten mad at Hau for not taking things seriously and Moon had called him a fucktrumpet and they’d all gotten sent to the principal’s office, including Lillie, because she’d been too anxious to sit by herself at the table. But the road trip, specifically -  _ that  _ whole thing starts on the thirteenth of February, when Lillie drags the three of them into the Italian classroom during common lunch.

“This is pretty raunchy eighties movie of you, Lils,” Moon says. “I just don’t get why  _ they’re  _ here.” The grin that crosses her face is entirely shameless.

Lillie flushes a light pink, nose wrinkling. “I’m being serious.”

Hau nudges Moon with a half-hearted glare. “Yeah! We’re also being serious.”

Gladion, though - Gladion looks genuinely concerned, and that’s enough for Moon to straighten out. “Are you okay?”

Lillie sighs, hands fluttering. “I - I’ve been sick for the past couple days, so Mother let me sleep in a little today.”

“I missed you in math,” Hau offers.

Moon gives him a look somewhere between  _ shut up let her talk _ and  _ shut up  _ I _ missed her in math _ . 

“And Mother left for her retreat today,” Gladion realizes. “So you were alone in the house.” His gaze grows steely. “Did someone-”

“No, no,” Lillie says, quick. “Nothing like that.” She takes a deep breath in, steadies herself against one of the half-desks, the kind Hau always complains are biased against lefties. “But I was trying to find Ms. Wicke - and you know how I’m terrible with spatial things.”

Oh, does Moon know. One time Lillie got lost in a movie theater bathroom.

“Somehow I got inside the lab?” Lillie’s whispers are growing more urgent, her eyebrows furrowing. “And - I don’t even know how to  _ describe _ it to you, there were so many pokémon, all iced over. It was terrible.” She turns to Gladion. “There were two that looked just like Null.”

Gladion stiffens, but doesn’t interject.

“And they were all sleeping, or.” Lillie shakes her head, as if to clear it of the unpleasant image. “But one of them was awake, or moving, at least - it was caged up. It looked really hurt.”

There’s a slight trill from her backpack. 

Lillie clutches the bag to her chest, cheeks flushing. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

Something tightens up in Moon’s throat, something big and dark and scary. She shoves it down, swallows, but the words still aren’t  _ there _ , and she just really, really wants Lillie’s face to stop looking like that. 

Hau breaks the stillness by placing a gentle hand on top of Gladion’s clenched fist. He looks up at Lillie with kind eyes. “I’m glad you told us,” he says, careful. “Are you okay?”

Lillie nods.

“What kind of pokemon is it?” Moon interjects. She can’t be Hau, calming glances and quiet affirmations and sunshine, but she can distract. She’s a pro at distraction. Really, she should go Olympic for it.

“Cosmog,” Lillie says. “At least, that’s what the notes said.” She hugs her backpack a little tighter, and Moon watches it wriggle for a second before settling down. “It - it’s not from here. Its home is somewhere called Ultra Space.”

They stand in relative silence for a long moment, the four of them. And then Gladion softens, slipping his hand from Hau’s grasp to wrap an arm around Lillie’s shoulders in a loose hug. “We’ll figure this out together, okay?” He says.

Lillie nods, more confident, now. Still scared. Moon feels the urge, not for the first time, to find Lusamine Aether and punch her directly in her stupid, ugly face. But that’s not what Lillie would want.

The bell sounds, a loud Pikachu call signaling the end of common lunch. Lillie shoulders her backpack, nodding at the three of them. “I’ll see you after school,” she says.

“We’ll figure this out,” Hau promises.

And then they leave.

* * *

 

**Marvel’s The Runaways**

 

**moon:** where r we meeting

 

**Hau!:** my house! hala is in italy i think so we have the place to ourselves :)

 

**moon:** 3 cheers for absent parents

**moon:** sorry that was. in extremely poor taste

 

**lils:** It’s alright, Moon.

**lils:** At least we have each other.

 

**Hau!:** plus leftover poke

 

**moon:** oh dude u better hope i dont beat u there

* * *

 

Gladion shows up on Hau’s doorstep after Moon and Hau have already polished off the poke. Null sits patiently at his side. They look like they’ve been walking for a hundred years.

“You don’t look so good,” Hau notes. His tone is teasing, but there’s a note of concern in the furrow of his brows.

“I need to confess something,” he says, eyes locking on something over Moon’s shoulder.

Moon is ready to make a joke, but it actually seems like one of the rare times where that  _ wouldn’t _ help the situation, so she shuts her mouth.

“Well, come inside,” Hau says.

He does.

They move to Hau’s bedroom, sitting in a haphazard circle on the carpet. Moon picks at the blue fuzz, rolling it into thin lines and twisting them together. There’s some kind of weird tension in the air, and Moon isn’t used to it - at least not between the four of them. Her best friends. They don’t keep secrets.

“Remember when I ran away?” Gladion asks.

Moon remembers. And that’s important, because her memory is absolute shit when it comes to anything but song lyrics, but she remembers every second of those three weeks in 4k ultrawide HD quality. The first few days, when neither of them showed up to school. The way Lillie’s hands shook when she told them. The same kind of pit in her stomach.

“What about it?” Hau asks.

“I lied,” Gladion says, all in a rush. “I didn’t find Null on the street. I - I was snooping, and I found the lab, except Null was the only pokemon there. And so I took him and I just… ran.”

The room is deadly quiet, the only sound being Lillie’s shaky breathing.

Gladion stares at the ground, determined. “Lusamine promised me that if I came back, if I never said anything, she would let the whole thing go. That she wouldn’t  _ ever _ experiment on a pokemon, ever again.”

The pause that follows is seemingly endless and dramatic as all fuck. Moon wants to fold herself into a tiny paper crane and fly away. Instead, she watches.

Lillie opens her mouth, and then closes it. She blinks, slow, hurt rising and falling like the tide in her eyes. Her gaze finally settles on her twin. “You could have told me,” she says. “But I understand why you didn’t.”

Gladion nods, and it’s like clouds parting over his face. “I - I’m sorry, anyways,” he says. “I’m so sorry.”

Hau and Moon share a glance, and there’s a joke there about Gladion exercising his vocabulary, but they both know it isn’t the time.

“You’re forgiven,” Lillie says, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. The tension wavers, slinks away into the corner of the room. “What now?”

Moon takes in a deep breath, and it feels like her first in hours. She grins. “Now, we fix your Cosmog problem.”

“Your Cosmoblem,” Hau says. “Your… uh, your problemog.” He sighs. “It’s nothing, isn’t it?”

“Absolute dogshit,” Moon agrees, cheerful.

Lillie snorts, slapping a hand over her mouth in a sorry attempt to hide her giggles. Moon has about seven heart palpitations.

“What’s on your computer?” Gladion asks, rescuing her from her moment of Intense And All Consuming Gayness.

“Good question,” Moon says. She fiddles around on her laptop for another moment before swiveling it around. “Behold. Our own resident Ultra Space expert.”

_ Resident  _ is a little bit of a stretch. Professor Amber Burnet lives with her husband and dog in bright and sunny San Francisco, California, at least according to Wikipedia. She’s been studying Ultra Space and the supposed beasts that live within it for years. The picture displayed on the Wikipedia page is of a dark skinned woman in her early thirties, smiling cheerfully at the camera, a Rockruff perched on her shoulder and an award of some sort held in her arms.

“If anyone can help us solve the mystery that is your Cosmog,” Moon says, “it’s her. She’s written, Arceus,  _ dozens _ of full length research papers on that shit.”

Gladion skims the page with flickering eyes. He then raises an eyebrow at her in his famous half-effort glare. “So? What are we going to do,  _ drive _ to California?”

Moon winks.

The following glare is expected, but - Gladion’s  _ actually _ thinking. “How?” he asks.

“My mom’s been bugging me to leave town since I was eleven,” Moon says. “ _ Your _ mom is an abusive psychopath-” Lillie looks like she wants to butt in, but Moon barrels on. “-and Hala is in Italy for at least the rest of the week. We all have our licenses and Hau’s shitty Subaru. There is literally nothing stopping us.”

Gladion hums, thoughtful. “What the fuck,” he says, finally. “Let’s go. Tomorrow night.”

“Woo-hoo!” Hau cheers. “Road trip!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh plot??  
> also this thing is gonna update as soon as i write the next thing so? Sporadically, i guess, but have this  
> follow me on tumblr! www.cassiecillian.tumblr.com :^)


	3. then any road will get you there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the quartet are menaced by a gas pump and also a motel.

They’ve been stopped at the Sunoco for at least fifteen minutes when Lillie sets her sunhat down on top of the hood. “I am going to wake Hau up,” she says.

Gladion grits his teeth, prying uselessly at the fuel cap. “Don’t you dare.”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” Lillie continues, wide-eyed and innocent, about three seconds away from a yawn. “I’m sure there’s plenty of people who don’t know how to fill a gas tank.”

From her perch on top of the Subaru, Moon doesn’t bother to cover her laugh. Beside her, Nebby trills, throwing its head back. Mango, the Rowlet on her lap, chirps mockingly like the little savage she is. 

“Oh, fuck off,” Gladion grumbles. He turns to glare at the three of them. “You could help.”

It’s their seventh hour straight on the road, and more than ever Moon is glad for how stupidly rich Gladion and Lillie are. (Or -  _ were _ . Lusamine hasn't cancelled their credit cards yet, probably because she hasn't noticed they're gone, but it's sure to happen soon. They haven't talked about it.)

The point is - watching the twins try to do normal human things and failing spectacularly is the best entertainment Moon's had in awhile. "I told you," she says, scratching at one of Nebby's cloud puffs. The pokemon purrs. "I have a diesel allergy."

“That is such bullshit,” Gladion says. He turns back to the fuel pump with narrowed eyes, like he can intimidate it into working.

The man at the counter of the Mini Mart, who has been eyeing them for awhile now, sets a water bottle down. He starts towards the door.

"Oh, no,” Lillie says. Her tone has shifted from exasperated amusement to genuine discomfort. Moon watches her wring her wrists and feels a sudden urge to go and fight something, possibly the concept of fear, possibly God. She doesn’t know. She’s been awake all night. 

Maybe it’s the exhaustion, and maybe it’s the fact that it’s five in the morning and no one wants to deal with four obnoxious teens at five in the morning, but the Mini Mart man looks positively  _ murderous _ . He pushes the door open and stalks towards them with purpose. 

“Back in the car!” Moon crows, sweeping Nebby and Mango into her arms and sliding down the side of the car. It’s infinitely less graceful than she’d imagined. She lands on one knee, letting out a startled yelp at the scrape of the asphalt. 

Gladion’s deadly glare is almost  _ tangible _ . 

“Fucking  _ ow _ !” She’s grinning, though, as she climbs into the car, shoving Hau’s feet off of the seat. “Gladion, start the fucking car, this is  _ not how I want to die _ .”

Desperately trying to maintain his evil eye and failing more than succeeding, Gladion pulls them out of the gas station, back onto the highway. 

Moon watches the street lamps zoom by, blinking slow. She presses her scraped knee up against the metal of the passenger door, huffs out a breath against the glass. Mango nudges her nose against the fog, tracing what appears to be a crooked smiley face. 

Hau stirs, yawning long and wide. “Wh… ‘s goin on?” he mumbles. 

“We tried to get gas,” Lillie says, from the front. 

He rubs a hand over his eyes, squinting. “How do you  _ try _ to get gas?”

Moon and Lillie both turn, nearly in unison, to stare at Gladion, eyebrows raised. It’s kind of impressive, actually. 

Gladion opens his mouth, closes it. His eyes are locked on the road. “We… didn’t have enough cash?”

There’s a pause. 

Hau sits up, slow. There’s a smile growing on his face. “Glad,” he says. “Gladion. G man.”

Gladion lets out the world’s longest sigh. 

The grin on Hau’s face is almost vicious. “How much do you think gas costs?”

“I don’t know,” Gladion mumbles. “Like a hundred dollars?”

Hau snorts. And then he bursts into a full body laugh, complete with wheezing and everything, hand pressed to his chest, tears rolling down his cheeks. “A hundred dollars!” He cries out. 

Moon watches Gladion’s reflection in the side mirror. He’s bright red, and his eyes keep flickering between the road and the rear view, and there’s this look of unadulterated  _ awe _ in his eyes. Like he’s never seen Hau laugh before. Like he’s never seen  _ anyone _ laugh before. 

A loud honk brings them all back to the present. Gladion’s been drifting into the next lane - on top of that, the light labeled LOW GAS has begun to blink in earnest. “We should probably stop,” Lillie says. “I mean, we should’ve stopped around two AM, but we should definitely stop now. Please.”

On the side of the highway, there’s a sign for a motel. They pull into the right lane. Lillie starts to scold Gladion for not using his turn signal, and Hau moves over to rest against Moon’s side. His Pichu, affectionately named Chupa Chups after his favorite lollipop brand, is cuddled up against Null in the trunk. 

“This was a good idea,” he says into Moon’s knee. 

“I know,” Moon says. “I’m full of good ideas.”

“I mean it.” His voice is soft, and she can hear the smile in it. “Even though we could have probably planned it out a lot less terribly.”

Moon hums her assent. San Francisco is, upon looking at a map,  _ so _ much bigger than she had thought. And it’s not like Professor Burnet has her home address up on Wikipedia. 

“S’ worth it, though,” Hau says. 

She looks up, at the twins in the front, bickering playfully over motel etiquette, all tired and smiley, and it sends a happy pang through her chest. If it meant she was getting them away from Lusamine, she would’ve  _ walked _ to California. Hau would’ve, too. 

Lillie catches her eye in the middle of trying to corral Nebby into her backpack, grins, with her eyes and everything. She looks like the human embodiment of Saturdays. 

“Yeah,” Moon says. And then she shoves Hau off of her lap. “Come on, losers, let’s find some Kit Kats.”

* * *

 

They sweep their assorted granola bar wrappers and empty Five Hour Energies into a plastic ShopRite bag at Lillie’s environmentally conscious insistence, and head inside the largest door in the motel parking lot. 

It opens to a cozy room, wood paneled walls and a dusty, smoldering fireplace in the corner. A guy in his twenties with floppy, pink hair is sitting on a barstool behind the plastic counter, flipping idly through a poetry book. He looks up as they walk in. “Good morning,” he says, hesitant. 

Hau’s eyes widen, as if he’s just realizing something. “It’s morning?” He asks Gladion. “You guys drove  _ all night _ ?”

Gladion gives him a tiny, dare she say  _ fond  _ smile, before walking up to the counter. “Can we just get a room for a night?” He asks. 

“We have two connected doubles,” the guy offers. 

Gladion and Lillie share a look, twin telepathy and all, before Gladion shakes his head. “Just one will be fine.”

Moon watches, as the guy nods and moves to the giant beige desktop on the counter. His name tag says ‘Ilima.’ “I like your hair,” she says. 

Ilima looks surprised, but pleased. He smiles, continuing to type into the computer. “What are you kids doing out so late?” He asks. 

“Running away,” Lillie says. Her voice is barely a whisper, but she says it like a joke, and Moon almost doesn’t believe her. 

“Well, good luck,” Ilima says. He finishes up at the computer, hands Gladion’s license and credit card back. 

The room is about the size of Moon’s kitchen, back home. The beds are nothing fancy, but she’s slept on worse. They all have. There’s a bathroom at the back, and a locked door that presumably leads to the other double. The walls are a hand painted mural of the ocean, and in theory it might have been weird, but standing there - sofa beds and ocean wall and everything - Moon feels so incredibly safe. She can’t even describe it. 

“I’ll take the floor,” Gladion says, dumping his duffel on the floor by the closet. 

Hau scoffs. “Don’t be stupid.”

“Fucktrumpet,” Moon adds. 

Gladion glances at her. “See,” he says. “Now that seems like you just wanted to call me a fucktrumpet.”

Moon grins, shrugs, flopping backwards onto the bed nearest to the door. “I thought we were just gonna sleep in the car the whole time,” she says. “This is a whole lot more room.”

And laying horizontally feels  _ really _ nice. Moon stays there, for a long moment, while the others take turns in the bathroom washing up and changing, while Hau and Gladion argue softly over the temperature to set the thermostat. While Lillie slips into bed next to her. 

It’s dark in the room when she comes to again. Hau’s got his earbuds in, in the bed across from hers. Gladion is asleep, breathing deep, and Null’s curled around him, snoring at about 150 decibels.

Lillie is laying on her back. She’s tied her hair up, and the red T shirt she’s wearing dwarfs her entire body. She looks… she looks  _ really _ pretty.

“How do you feel?” Moon asks, because she needs to ask something, or else she’s going to end up saying something stupid and friendship-ruining. “One to ten.”

Lillie hums, for a moment. “I don’t know,” she says. “Ask me in the morning.”

“It is the morning,” Moon reminds her. Through the gaps in the blinds, the sun has just begun to rise.

“Well,” Lillie says. She smiles, sweet, eyes drifting to the corner of the room, where Nebby (free of its bag), Mango, and Chup are cuddling up in the snacks cupboard. “Then I guess around a seven.”

“That’s good,” Moon says. “That’s good.”

And the rest of the world slips away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we stan some stupid and useless gays  
> moon has a rowlet in the manga, apparently! so i went with that. also mango trees are poisonous which i just found out. another fun fact: there is a poisonous plant indigenous to hawaii called 'plumeria'. also kukui is a candle nut tree which i didn't even know existed. The More You Know!  
> hhh i don't think there's anything else so!
> 
> follow me on tumblr! www.cassiecillian.tumblr.com :^)


End file.
